Just days before the festival of Holi, food safety officials carried out raids that revealed a troubling discovery. Authorities from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India seized around 1,400 kilograms of fake khoya, along with about 400 kilograms of expired ghee and paneer that were allegedly meant to reach markets ahead of the celebrations. The seized products were destroyed before they could enter the consumer supply chain.
The timing of the raid is significant. Holi is one of India’s most celebrated festivals, known for sweets such as gujiya, peda, and barfi that rely heavily on khoya and other dairy products. When the demand for sweets surges during festivals, the food supply chain faces enormous pressure. That is often when adulterated or fake products begin appearing in markets.
While this particular raid prevented unsafe food from reaching consumers, it also raises a deeper question. Why do such incidents appear almost every festive season in India? Understanding the economics, supply chains, and consumer behavior behind adulteration helps reveal why the problem persists.
Why Festivals Often Trigger Food Adulteration
Festivals are emotional, cultural, and culinary events in India. Families buy sweets not only for personal consumption but also for gifting and community celebrations. During Holi, Diwali, and other major festivals, sweet shops across cities suddenly require large quantities of milk-based ingredients.
Khoya is one of the most important ingredients in many traditional sweets. It is produced by slowly reducing milk until it thickens into a dense solid. The process requires large amounts of milk and time. For example, producing one kilogram of khoya can require several liters of milk.
According to government advisories and food safety guidelines, dairy products such as khoya, paneer, and ghee are among the most commonly adulterated items during festive seasons because their demand rises sharply.
When demand increases suddenly, legitimate suppliers may struggle to keep up. This creates an opportunity for dishonest producers who use cheaper ingredients to imitate dairy products. These substitutes can include starch, vegetable fats, or other additives that mimic the texture of real khoya. Studies examining adulterated dairy products have found substances such as starch and other fillers in khoya-based sweets.
In short, the combination of high demand, perishable ingredients, and profit incentives makes festive seasons particularly vulnerable to adulteration.
India Produces Plenty of Milk. So Why the Shortcuts?
At first glance, the problem may seem surprising because India is the world’s largest milk producer. Yet adulteration still occurs frequently in the dairy supply chain.
According to Le Monde, India produces hundreds of millions of tonnes of milk each year and supports millions of farmers. Despite this large output, quality control across the vast network of producers, traders, transporters, and retailers remains a challenge.
Milk moves through a complex chain before it becomes sweets in urban markets. It may pass from farmers to collection centers, then to processing units, wholesalers, and retailers. At any stage, dilution or substitution can occur.
Because milk and milk products are highly perishable, producers sometimes add substances to increase shelf life or volume. Water is the most common adulterant, but studies have detected other substances such as detergents, urea, and neutralizers in some cases.
This shows that adulteration is often driven less by absolute shortages and more by economic incentives and weaknesses in monitoring systems.
How Fake Food Enters City Markets
For many consumers in Indian cities, the supply chain behind sweets and dairy products is largely invisible. But food experts say adulterated products usually enter markets through informal networks.
Unregulated production units are one common source. These small facilities may produce fake khoya or paneer using inexpensive ingredients. The products are then sold to traders who distribute them to sweet shops.
Another route is through transportation networks that move bulk dairy products between states. Authorities have occasionally intercepted large consignments of adulterated paneer and khoya being transported to festival markets.
Once the adulterated ingredient reaches sweet shops and is mixed into sweets, tracing its origin becomes extremely difficult. By the time consumers buy gujiyas or laddus, the adulterated ingredient is hidden inside the final product.
This lack of traceability is one of the biggest challenges for regulators.
Is Cheap Food Always Unsafe?
A common assumption among consumers is that very cheap sweets must be adulterated. While price can sometimes signal lower quality, it is not always a reliable indicator.
Food can be inexpensive for legitimate reasons. Large-scale manufacturers may achieve lower costs through efficiency and bulk production. Local shops may also keep prices low due to lower overhead costs.
However, extremely low prices during high-demand periods can raise suspicion. Dairy-based sweets have certain minimum production costs because milk itself is expensive. If the price of sweets falls far below typical market rates, it may indicate that cheaper substitutes have been used.
At the same time, expensive sweets are not always safer. Even premium sweet shops often purchase ingredients such as khoya from external suppliers. If those suppliers use adulterated materials, the final product may still be compromised.
This means price alone cannot guarantee food safety.
How Widespread Is Food Adulteration in India?
The scale of food adulteration in India is difficult to measure precisely, but several studies and surveys offer insights.
FSSAI analysed 4,29,685 food samples across India between 2021 and 2023, and 1,05,907 samples (about 24.6 percent) were found to be “non-conforming” to food safety standards, meaning they were unsafe, substandard, or mislabelled, Telegraph India reported.
Research examining milk quality has also highlighted widespread issues. One study analyzing milk samples reported that over 70 percent of samples tested contained some form of adulteration or deviation from quality standards.
These findings do not mean that most food in the market is unsafe. Many samples fail quality standards due to dilution or reduced nutritional value rather than dangerous contamination. But the data does reveal persistent weaknesses in monitoring and enforcement.
Food adulteration is therefore not just a seasonal issue. It is a systemic challenge affecting multiple food categories including milk, oils, spices, and sweets.
Do Consumers Know About Adulteration?
Interestingly, many consumers are already aware of the problem.
According to PMC, surveys show that a large proportion of participants knew that milk and dairy products can be adulterated. More than half of respondents in one study reported awareness of food adulteration in everyday items.
Yet awareness does not always translate into changed behavior.
Festivals create strong emotional and cultural expectations. Sweets are an essential part of celebrations, gifting, and hospitality. Even when consumers suspect that some products might be adulterated, they often continue purchasing them because alternatives are limited, and because everybody else is buying too.
There is also a psychological factor at play. If adulteration appears widespread, people may feel that avoiding it is nearly impossible. This leads to a sense of resignation rather than caution. Besides in many cases of adulterated food, the immediate health impact is not visible. So people might ignore the danger adulterated food poses, like synthetic paneer.
What Regulators Are Doing to Address the Problem
Regulators are aware that festive seasons require additional vigilance.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India conducts special inspection drives before major festivals to test sweets, dairy products, and cooking oils.
These drives involve collecting food samples, testing them in laboratories, and seizing products that fail safety standards. Authorities also run mobile food testing units that can conduct rapid checks in markets.
However, enforcement alone cannot completely eliminate adulteration. India’s food sector is vast and includes millions of small vendors and producers. Monitoring every transaction is practically impossible.
This is why experts increasingly emphasize preventive approaches such as supply chain traceability, better testing infrastructure, and stronger consumer awareness.
What Consumers Can Do to Reduce Risk
While regulators play a crucial role, consumers also have some power to reduce their risk of buying adulterated food.
Buying from trusted vendors with established reputations can reduce uncertainty. Asking for bills or receipts also encourages accountability among sellers.
Another option is preparing sweets at home when possible, especially during major festivals like Holi or Diwali. Homemade sweets allow families to control the ingredients used.
Food safety agencies have also promoted simple testing methods for common adulterants, although these methods are not widely used by consumers.
Ultimately, transparency in food supply chains is likely to be the most effective long term solution.
A Festive Question That Keeps Returning
Every year before major celebrations, headlines appear about raids on adulterated sweets, fake dairy products, or expired ingredients. Each raid prevents some unsafe food from reaching consumers, but the pattern continues.
The recent seizure of fake khoya and expired dairy products before Holi is therefore more than just a law enforcement success. It is a reminder of how complex India’s food system has become.
Festivals are meant to be moments of joy, sharing, and trust. Yet the recurring discovery of adulterated sweets raises an uncomfortable question that consumers, regulators, and food businesses must confront together.
How can a country that celebrates food so deeply ensure that the food on its festive tables remains safe and genuine?
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Festivals like Holi are meant to bring people together through joy, trust, and shared traditions. Incidents of adulterated sweets remind us that food safety is not just a regulatory issue but a matter of public trust and collective responsibility. Authorities, businesses, and consumers must work together to strengthen transparency and accountability so celebrations remain safe, honest, and rooted in care for community wellbeing.
